Thermal performance of finned aluminum heat sink filled with ERG aluminum foam: Experimental and numerical approach

Abstract

Summary The rapid improvements in electronic devices have led to a high demand for effective cooling techniques. The purpose of this study was to investigate the heat transfer characteristics and performance of different aluminum heat sinks filled with aluminum foam for an Intel core i7 processor. The aluminum foam heat sinks were subjected to water flow covering the non‐Darcy flow regime (300‐600 Reynolds numbers). The bottom side of the heat sinks was heated with a heat flux between 8.5 and 13.8 W/cm2. Three different heat sinks were examined in this study. Models A, B, and C contained two, three and four channels, respectively. Each channel gap was filled with ERG aluminum foam. The distributions of the local surface temperature and the local Nusselt number were measured for each heat sink design. The experimental data were compared with the numerical results. The average Nusselt number was obtained for the range of Reynolds numbers, and an empirical correlation of the average Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds number was derived for each heat sink. The pressure drop across the characteristics of each heat sink design was measured. The thermal performance of each aluminum foam heat sink was evaluated based on the average Nusselt number and the required pumping power. The experimental results revealed that model B achieved the highest average Nusselt number compared with models A and C. However, model C had the highest surface to volume ratio; the thermal boundary layers, which are formed on adjacent fin surfaces inside the aluminum foam, interface with each other causing a reduction in the overall heat transfer. The numerical results were in good agreement with experimental data of local Nusselt number and local temperature with maximum relative errors of 2% and 1%, respectively.

Novel Approach of Heat Rate Enhancement in a Rectangular Channels with Thin Porous Layer at the Channel Walls

“…Figure 1 presents the model under investigation. This model has been investigated numerically and experimentally by different researchers [1][2][3][4][5] in the absence of porous foam or fully filled with porous foam. In the present study, the channels are plain channels and a porous metallic foam strip having different thickness have been attached at its walls.…”

“…Heat enhancement and heat storage are amongst the most studied topics in heat transfer. Ways to improve heat extraction received a large number of interests amongst researchers in this field [1]. Bayomy [2] in his Ph D study investigated experimentally and numerically porous rectangular channels and determined the thermal efficiency for different channel configuration.…”

Forced Convection in Wavy Microchannels Porous Media Using TiO2 and Al2O3–Cu Nanoparticles in Water Base Fluids: Numerical Results

“…Saghir research team [21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] have experimentally and numerically investigated the forced convection of Al2O3-Cu hybrid nanofluid, Al2O3/water nanofluid in porous media at different flow rates and heating conditions in a straight channel. Results revealed that fluid such as water with metallic nanoparticle can enhance the heat extraction by no more than 6% when compared to water circulation.…”

Thermal performance and entropy generation of single‐layer and double‐layer constructal Y‐shaped bionic microchannel heat sinks

“…A large number of researchers have devoted to design a variety of chips cooling technologies and published a series of results. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] For example, the thermal behaviors of the rectangular straight microchannel (RSMC) subject to the laminar flow regime were investigated by Lee et al 6 whose results indicate wide disparities occur between experiments and correlations due to mismatch in the boundary and inlet conditions. Yet, with full 3D conjugate analysis coupled with entrance and boundary conditions, the performance of RSMC can be well predicted.…”